{"id":146573,"date":"2026-02-06T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146573\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:59:09","slug":"florida-baseball-coach-kevin-osullivan-hopes-to-deliver-the-best-version-of-myself-after-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146573\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida baseball coach Kevin O\u2019Sullivan hopes to deliver \u2018the best version of myself\u2019 after leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Florida baseball coach Kevin O\u2019Sullivan now has a homemade gym in his garage. It\u2019s the first place he visits every morning.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan used a two-month leave of absence<\/a> to change his daily routine and eliminate some old habits in hopes of finding \u201cthe best version of myself\u201d heading into his 19th season in Gainesville.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really that simple,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said Friday, more than seven weeks after resuming his coaching duties with the Gators. \u201cI feel rejuvenated. I feel great. I feel much, much more at peace, if that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan stepped away in late October to address undisclosed \u201cpersonal matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gators went through two interim coaches during his hiatus. They turned to associate head coach Chuck Jeroloman before he left to take a similar job at Tennessee. Florida then hired former Auburn head coach Tom Slater as associate head coach.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan returned a week before Christmas and has been getting his program ready for next weekend\u2019s season-opening series against UAB. The 57-year-old coach nicknamed \u201cSully\u201d has led the program to 756 wins, 17 NCAA regionals, nine College World Series appearances, six Southeastern Conference championships and the 2017 national title.<\/p>\n

But his most recent season was far from the norm. In August, the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee issued a public reprimand to O\u2019Sullivan for aggressive behavior and profanity-laced language directed at site administrators<\/a> for the regional in Conway, South Carolina, two months earlier.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan was upset that the start time of his team\u2019s elimination game against East Carolina was pushed back an hour. East Carolina\u2019s previous game had ended at midnight.<\/p>\n

Videos of O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s tirade were circulated widely on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly wish I didn\u2019t do it,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201dNo one feels more regretful than I do. The last thing I want to do is misrepresent Florida or myself, or anybody for that matter. I handled it poorly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida responded by suspending O\u2019Sullivan for the first three games of the 2026 season, meaning he will have to watch the opening series from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly accept that,\u201d he said. \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, I\u2019ve moved forward on that. That\u2019s in the past for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s career probably depends on it.<\/p>\n

He signed a four-year contract extension in January 2024 that raised his annual salary to $1.8 million and put him under contract through 2033. But there\u2019s little doubt decision-makers at Florida will have no tolerance moving forward for another outburst.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou make a commitment to yourself personally,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201cThat\u2019s what kind of slips away at times. I get up every morning and have my own routine and make sure I get some personal time for myself, so I don\u2019t get bogged down during the day and let one day slip away from the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important. One of the things is we all take care of ourselves first. And if we do that, then everything else will fall in place. It\u2019s really that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan admittedly has been too much of a perfectionist at times, and last year was a trying season. The Gators dealt with a rash of injuries and started 1-11 in SEC before rebounding to make the NCAA field.<\/p>\n

He opens this season with high expectations. Not only does he have a ranked team led by starting pitchers Liam Peterson and Aidan King, he now expects more of himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings can kind of get away from me a little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cLast fall, at the end, was probably one of the hardest things I\u2019ve had to do other than lose my parents or other family members. But it ended up being the best thing that could have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP college sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-sports<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Florida baseball coach Kevin O\u2019Sullivan now has a homemade gym in his garage. It\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21565,13985,28,30,29,5547,20074,110,27732],"class_list":{"0":"post-146573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-aidan-king","9":"tag-chuck-jeroloman","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-kevin-osullivan","14":"tag-liam-peterson","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tom-slater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}